General SCIM configuration

Some environment variables on your system must be correctly set in order to start applications for use with SCIM. Without these necessary environment variables other applications will not be aware that you intend to use SCIM.

Different approaches to setting the environment variables

If an input method is required for all of your applications then you should consider setting the environment variables globally. In different Linux/Unix distributions, the configuration files for global environment variables are so diverse that we will not try to enumerate them.

Alternatively, you can set these environment variables in the script which will be executed by the startx (or similar) script.

If an input method is occasionally required you can set these variables in a console and then from the console start applications in which you want to use SCIM.

Choosing a locale

Before using SCIM a locale must be selected. Not all locales are supported by SCIM.

Please consult the above table to identify the locale you wish to use. It is generally recommanded to use UTF-8 locales, even if you are using zh_(CN|HK|TW),ja_JP or ko_KR. After deciding use the command below to check whether your desired locale is available on your system:

locale -a

If the output contains a line which is the same as your chosen locale then your locale is supported. Otherwise, TODO "how to add utf-8 locale".

Environment variable settings

First set your locale environment variable:

export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"   # you have to set LC_CTYPE or LANG, see below for details

You have to set LC_CTYPE to the supported locale you selected in the previous step. Alternatively, you can set LANG which will take effect if LC_CTYPE is not set explicitly. The differences are described in the table below. For more information on all the environment variables the locale supports try "man locale".

Next there are 3 variables ( XMODIFIERS, GTK_IM_MODULE, QT_IM_MODULE) you may need to set up for all of your applications to work with SCIM. There are 2 combinations/situations you may choose from. We will start with the least recommended way.

Using the XIM (X input method) protocol

Being the least optimal approach this combination will work in every distribution/environment as long as you have X. Set the three variables according to the commands below:

export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM    #case matters for this variable!
export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
export QT_IM_MODULE=xim

The environment variable XMODIFIERS specifies the XIM server to talk to. The last two lines are telling your system to disable everything except the native XIM protocol (X built-in) and to enable it throughout your system. Because the XIM protocol has a lot of limitations (for example, it may freeze your entire X when something goes wrong with the input method server), this combination of settings is generally not recommended.

Higher level input method protocol support

Alternatively to the above method, you can ask your GTK/Qt applications to make use of the GTK/Qt im-module, which are specifically designed to meet modern input method requirements. The GTK im-module support is a built-in feature in scim, while Qt im-module support is in a separate package, called scim-qtimm.

This time we should set our variables to these values:

export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM    #case matters for this variable!
export GTK_IM_MODULE=scim
export QT_IM_MODULE=scim

XMODIFIERS will be used in all X applications (via an older XIM protocol), such as xpdf. It does not have other more advanced input method abstract layers.

Default input methods of GTK/Qt im-module are set by the last two lines. Please set them as above. Even if the necessary support does not exist, these two lines should have no side effects at all on your system.

General skim configuration

If you installed skim and want it to be the default GUI, then please follow the steps described in this section, otherwise please skip this section.

By default, libscim (scim) will make use of GTK+2 GUIs, so you have to change that:

skim -d -f

Under X, the above command will start skim no matter whether scim-panel-gtk is running or not. Next open the configure dialog (by selecting the configure action in the right click menu of either the system tray icon or the main window) and go to

->

->

tab (before skim 1.3.0, please go to

->

instead) and change these settings to the following:

Starting SCIM from your window manager

TODO: "to be continued"